Overview

Current Exhibit

Past Highlights

How to Submit

40 Years of Arts Programming

Overview

The Esther Klein Gallery’s (EKG) mission is to positively impact the cultural life of our West Philadelphia neighborhood and the broader community. EKG programming uses the creative arts as a platform to explore the relationships between art, science and technology The gallery is home to exhibitions, artist talks, panel discussions, performances and special events. Since 1976, art programming at the Science Center has been a strong and vital force in the community.

EKG is free and open to the public. It is supported in part by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, The Rittenhouse Foundation and The Provincial Fund.

Stay up-to-date on EKG news and events!

[RE]Imagining science

February 8, 2018 - March 24, 2018

Six teams of researchers based at Indiana University Bloomington have reimagined science, and the results are on display in a new exhibit at the Esther Klein Gallery (EKG). [RE]Imagining Science opens on February 8, 2018 and runs through March 24, 2018. The closing reception has been rescheduled for Thursday, March 22nd, 5 - 7:30 p.m. at the Esther Klein Gallery, 3600 Market Street.

The artwork illustrates various scientific principles, building new ways to understand science, and potentially creating new science as an outcome. [RE]Imagining Science was first exhibited at the Grunwald Gallery of Art at the School of Art, Architecture + Design, Indiana University Bloomington in October 2016. Six of the original 12 projects will be on display at EKG.

The artwork on display draws inspiration from a range of images, ideas and theories. Some researchers have used mathematical models, microscopy images, and protein structures to illustrate ideas found in science. Others use artmaking to clarify ways that science can inform the visual. In some of the projects, technology is used to visualize and develop new systems for imaging scientific ideas, while others rely on cells and photo-synthesis to create images, often using low-tech and handmade techniques.

networks within and around us

December 18 – January 26, 2018

Networks are everywhere. They describe how entities—people, objects, and organisms—are connected and interact with each other. By studying the patterns of connections between elements in a variety of network systems, a group of young artists and high school students from the PENN Network Visualization Program discovered the governing principles of physical, biological, and social phenomena.

Gut Love: you are my future

October 12 - November 25, 2017

Understanding the microbiome, the millions of bacteria that live in our guts, is one of the newest frontiers in human health. Gut Love: You Are My Future offers an artist’s perspective as it explores the human condition through the lens of the gut microbiome.

A MESH IS ALSO A SNARE

August 17 - September 30, 2017

While art and science are often thought of as two completely separate modes of thought, they are much more closely connected than one might think. A Mesh Is Also a Snare is a group exhibition presented by the Philadelphia-based artist collective Grizzly Grizzly. The title, A Mesh Is Also a Snare, is derived from an ecological concept that all forms of life are connected in a vast entangling mesh. No construct exists independently from the entanglement, nor does “human” or “nature” exist as a separate hierarchical entity; they are interdependent. The exhibit explores the myriad ways in which technology connects art and science, to illustrate how neither field precedes the other but instead acts upon each other to form new cultural and political ideologies.

FEATURE CREEP

June 22, 2017 – July 22, 2017

Feature Creep, a solo exhibition byMaximillian Lawrence, follows an artist’s journey through creative experimentation and interdisciplinary collaboration. The term “feature creep” primarily refers to the ongoing expansion of features in products like computer software, usually making the software more complicated. Lawrence has adopted this terminology and describes it as the process of life creeping into a piece of work, similar to the experience of recognizing the features of a face in a cloud. By collaborating with a diverse range of musicians, artists, enthusiasts and scientists, Lawrence explores the phenomenon of pareidolic synestheseastic transfigurations, a process in which we are inclined to recognize significant forms in unfamiliar stimuli.

CONTINUUM

April 13, 2017 - May 27, 2017

Continuum is a retrospective by sculptor Rebecca Kamen, featuring a collaborative multi-media installation that explores the relationship between inner and outer space. Continuum opened on April 13th and ran through May 27th. Among the pieces in the exhibit were NeuroCantos, a collaboration between Kamen, sound artist Susan Alexjander, and poet Steven J. Fowler. The installation investigates how the brain distinguishes between inner and outer space through its ability to perceive similar patterns of complexity at the micro and macro scale. The piece is made up of cone-shaped structures representing the neuronal networks in the brain with overlapping shapes and rocks that symbolize art’s ability to form bridges of understanding between diverse fields.

Art at the Science Center: A 40-Year Retrospective

December 19, 2016 - January 26, 2017

After four decades of innovative programming and exhibitions exploring the intersection of art, science and technology, the Esther Klein Gallery is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a new exhibit. In celebration of this major milestone as an important institution and a community provider to Philadelphia, Art at the Science Center: A 40-Year Retrospective featured a short documentary film by Marie Alarcon exploring the extensive history of the gallery, with interviews featuring Libby Neuman, and other important people who played a role in shaping the development of EKG over the years. Libby Neuman was the guest of honor at the exhibit's opening reception. In addition, artwork from the gallery’s permanent collection was on view to the public, featuring work from Buckminster Fuller, Aleksandra Kasuba, James Dupree, and more.

THE AMERICA PROJECT

October 20 - November 19, 2016

By Paul Vanouse

The America Project is a live, biological art installation that is centered around a process called “DNA Gel Electrophoresis”, colloquially described as “DNA Fingerprinting”, a process which the artist appropriated to produce recognizable images. Visitors to the installation first encounter what might resemble a human scale fountain or decanter, which is actually a spittoon in which their donated spit is collected. Upon entering the exhibition, viewers will be offered a 1 oz. cup of saline solution and asked to swish for thirty seconds, then deposit into the spittoon. During the installation the artist will be extracting the DNA from hundreds of different spit samples (containing cheek cells) all mixed together. The DNA will not be individuated nor retained. This DNA will be processed to make iconic DNA Fingerprint images of power—such as a crown, warplanes and a flag, which will be visible as video projections of the live electrophoresis gels throughout the exhibition.

Surveillance: An Exhibition of Work on the Observation, Recording, and Storage of Human Activity

August 18 - September 30, 2016

By Daniel Newman and Keith Hartwig

Since electronic surveillance was first used in modern society, it has become a fixture in and around urban settings, altering human behavior and reconfiguring interactions between people. Surveillance: An Exhibition of Work on the Observation, Recording, and Storage of Human Activity, explored how surveillance has evolved into a common aspect of daily life.

Intergalactic Geographic Retrospective

June 16 - July 30, 2016

by Pat Aulisio and Josh Burggraf

What will scientific journals look like 3,000 years from now? Intergalactic Geographic Retrospective offered some answers to those who were willing to suspend reality and take a trip into the future.

Methods of Collection

February 11 – March 25, 2016

A group exhibition inspired by the practice of collecting zoological samples and animal specimens.

Scintillare

La Mer: Wildlife Series - From Diatoms to Blue Whales

December 3 - January 22, 2016

Works in clay by Marguerita Hagan

Mathematic

October 7 – November 20, 2015

A group exhibition demonstrating mathematic evidence in art, whether the works are directly inspired by math (geometry, fractals, patterns, etc), or if the mathematical principles emerge naturally and reveal themselves from our human disposition towards order.

HOW TO SUBMIT

EKG accepts exhibition proposals on an ongoing basis for solo and group exhibitions. All of our exhibitions connect to themes of science and/or technology. Exhibitions typically run for six to eight weeks. The exhibition schedule is determined 14-16 months in advance. We also accept proposals for special events, workshops and performances which can take place indoors or outdoors. Please send proposals to: gallery [at] sciencecenter.org.

40 Years of Arts Programming

In 1976, then-Science Center President Dr. Randall Whaley envisioned a program that explored and promoted the relationship between art and science. The first “Art in Science” exhibit was a collaborative project involving the Philadelphia Art Alliance and the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science (later known as Philadelphia University and now part of Thomas Jefferson University) . Three artists were selected for a week-long residency at the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science. Their work was exhibited at the Philadelphia Art Alliance in 1977.

Art at the Science Center: A 40-Year Retrospective

(Video produced by Marie Alarcon)

In 1981, R. Buckminster Fuller, a World Fellow in Residence at the Science Center, exhibited at what was then called the University City Science Center Gallery. The show included his early drawings, 4D and dymaxion ideas and his latest invention, the dymaxion bookcase.

The success of these early exhibitions and the connection to the Science Center paved the way for EKG’s primary focus on exploring the intersection between art, science and technology. To date, EKG has supported over 3,500 local, national and international artists through solo and group exhibitions. The gallery offers a dynamic program and events calendar that is free and open to the public.

Image

Sculpture by Aleksandra Kasuba from the first Art-in-Science Exhibition